Schippers aims at sprint double in Rio

Brussels, Sep 11 (IANS) Dafne Schippers, the newly-crowned world champion in 200 meters, said that she is opting to compete in both 100m and 200m races in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“In Rio, I will definitely opt for the double,” the Dutch athlete told reporters at a press conference on Thursday, Xinhua reported.

The bronze medallist in heptathlon at the 2013 athletics world championships had proved herself a good sprinter by winning a silver in the 100m race and a gold in the 200m event in Beijing.

“I won’t compete in the heptathlon anymore, even when I like it during the winter to train for different events and I will continue to do so. But I do have the idea of competing in the long jump next year every now and then. I’m hoping to jump over 7.00m.”

The 23-year-old amazed the world by clocking 21.63 seconds in the Bird’s Nest to become the third fastest woman in 200m in history only behind American sprinters Florence Griffith-Joyner and Marion Jones.

“I was expecting to run below 22 seconds in Beijing but 21.63 is a lot faster than what I was hoping for,” said Schippers.

“All world records will be broken one day. I must admit that I am thinking more about the world record now than I did before the world championships,” she added.